Two fourteenth-century Italian representations of the Lamentation over Christ, a large panel by Giottino and a component of a large altarpiece made by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, serve as case studies to argue for a more widespread gendering of grief in Trecento Tuscany. Examining the paintings in relation to several other cultural instruments, including the devotional text, Meditations on the Life of Christ, and the Sienese statutes governing funerals, the paper will argue that, although created primarily for purposes of prayer and spiritual edification, images of grieving over Christ also participated in an intertextual process that encoded and promoted acceptable grieving behaviors in the face of personal loss. Professor Judith Steinhoff considers the gendering of grief in fourteenth-century Italy, as seen in works by Giottino and Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
Online Lecture: ‘Grieving in Trecento Representations of the Lamentation’ with Judith Steinhoff, 16 December 2020, 16:50 – 18:30 (GMT)
Medieval Art Research 